Arte California

This is About Insurance

This is about insurance:
This is the most straightforward explanation of the nature of insurance and health savings accounts I have seen.
Insurance is a way of sharing the cost of risk. Health insurance is no different. It is a lottery where you buy a ticket and bet you are going to lose and hope you don’t at the same time. There is no free lunch.

We all need to understand this: First, for those who are confused, the Affordable Care Act, “ACA,” is the same thing as “Obamacare.”

Now, when Trump or Paul Ryan say they want to replace the ACA with “Health Savings Accounts” (HSAs), they are also saying they want to replace Obamacare or Medicare or Medicaid with YOU paying for your healthcare.

That means YOU pay for chemotherapy…YOU pay for all surgeries and hospitalization… YOU pay for all your family’s doctor visits, urgent care, ER visits, and prescription drugs out-of-our-pocket.
A Health Savings Account is just a tax-free way for you to save up money to pay for your own medical bills. So if you are paying off college loans, or saving for a house down-payment, or simply living paycheck to paycheck, guess what — a Health Savings Account does you no good, unless you have discretionary funds to deposit into it. And even if you manage to save five grand or ten grand in an HSA, that could all get wiped out in one hospital visit for you or a family member. Then you are back to square zero again.

Even if you can supplement your HSA with affordable health insurance, you will be eating away at money that you should be investing for your retirement or your kids’ college tuition.
Statistics reveal only the top 3-5% of Americans can save enough for retirement, college AND their own out-of-pocket medical expenses. Therefore, the tax benefits of HSA’s will only help those people.